I'm going to come right out and say it: I love the concept of this puzzle! I had no idea where it was going for the longest time, either, because I put iCbmS in at 4D: Cold War missiles on mobile launchers (SCUDS).
It has been the week of triple-checked letters, with three puzzles out of five so far. And this one is a doozie. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions," said STBERNARD, apparently. Or actually, he said: "L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés ou désirs." Which is a similar phrase, but not quite the same.
In this puzzle, we have the PAVEDROAD from the NW corner leading down one square short of the SE corner, where [HELL] sits in its own rebus square. It would have been just that much neater if 49D could have incorporated the rebus such that its meaning was hidden, as in SEAS[HELL] at 66A. Still, it was a great moment when I finally figured it out.
I love 30A: "Focus!" (SNAPOUTOFIT). Parsing that answer took a while. SATELLITETV is also really good (and a much better use of the TV duo than in 1D from yesterday's puzzle). Speaking of duos, RAPDUOS confused me so much. I had RAPperS there for some time, which made various things difficult to figure out.
So much to like. BETHERE! HEREIGO! Drinking a MIMOSA! GREENPEAS on the OPENRANGE! Speaking of which, we're getting a new cooktop next week.
1A: Grind (GNASH) gets an A-. I had no idea where that was going, and I love the word. The first two words I put in were ARC and ANODIC at the same time. Well, ARC was first.
Thumbs way up!
- Colum
31:58
ReplyDeleteI'd finished half of the puzzle, including the GOODINTENTIONS part of the revealer (the [HELL] rebus square came a bit later when I couldn't get any crosses, save one, to work with Shell down at 66A). Once I figured out the NE with the difficult PAVEDROAD and GREENPEAS, I figured out the rebus square and the whole eastern side fell. Excellent puzzle. SLEEPSOFA (57A Something pulled out before turning in), COLOSSI and even the clue for UMPS (25A Ones working at home?), even with the question mark, are all great. And who doesn't love VILLAS?
13:50
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed this. It's pretty much all been said, except for mentioning that "Set it and forget it" always makes me think of my sister. Unfortunately, she never told me where it came from, so I needed some crosses.
I like Latin as much as the next guy, but two "I" plurals is a bit much, no? And ANODIC is definitely glue, but really, it's not too much to pay for such a fun one.
Looking forward to seeing the new cooktop at New Year's!
One last thing - did anyone else find it odd that they went with "Queens neighborhood next to Jamaica" for HOLLIS instead of "Important Harvard Library benefactor?" :)
ReplyDeleteTotally delightful theme, and lots and lots of wonderful answers. I had to rely on Google/Wikipedia quite a bit (just too many tidbits like DRNO, MOLINE, ENESCU, STBERNARD, etc), but it was very much worth it to get the juicier parts.
ReplyDeleteTotally delightful theme, and lots and lots of wonderful answers. I had to rely on Google/Wikipedia quite a bit (just too many tidbits like DRNO, MOLINE, ENESCU, STBERNARD, etc), but it was very much worth it to get the juicier parts.
ReplyDelete